Great post! I haven't been on these forums since the old MTG Duels tournaments. I am eagerly awaiting the M19 Quick Draft to open in Arena, but did the pre-release sealed and managed a respectable 3-1 with a decent Bant list featuring my foil promo Resplendent Angel!

Tried to play earlier and ended up giving up. Got back on now and it seems to be working.

Drafted an ok WB deck, some decent cards, no outright bombs though. Think I was a little lucky to go 7-2, only mana screwed once and only ran into one very bomb deck. Pretty sure I should have lost another game if my opponent hadn't brainfarted too.

Heiromancers Cage was great, Open the Graves won me a couple games, Chaos Wand hit me a divination twice but was otherwise delt with swiftly. Most wins were via flying over the top, the last game was a protracted neonate drain.

Another 7-2, much more shakey deck though. Had done some rare drafting since I saw I'd only get a couple done in the event, last one I was going to run but it ended up a pretty disappointing pool. Ended up short on playables so was forced to 3 colour with some filler stuff. Went 1-2 then somehow rattled off 6 in a row.

Didn't get the reward screen since the event finished, did get my rewards though - bit of an improvement that! Pelakka Wurm hard carried, Sage was very good as was Departed Deckhand. Skyrider Patrol was absurd, but that's no surprise. A few games had me at 5-10 life before wurm turned things round. Was very fun to play, but would be better as just UG with some Rabid Bite. The Talons of Wildwood was terrible, would have played almost anything over it, just didn't fit in the deck at all since once I had the board my attacks either had trample already or were unblockable/evasive. A Disperse would have been great in that spot.

Very good runs, I managed to draft like 5 times never got to the 7 wins but I was drafting very fast and picking up some rares for constructed -A couple of wizards, a baby Bolas and 2 of those artifacts that ramp dragons- The format felt really basic, my best record was 6-3 with one RW aggro,but I got 5-3 several times. ... Damn I lost my WR pic... silly Cucho.... never mind that... I will build one next time, but things that repeated over and over where some insane board stalls that pretty much broke with spells like Trumpet Blast or some other pump the team FTW kinda of thing, One of my first runs I managed to grab one Vivian and I ultimate her for the win 2 times... here is that pile that went 5-3

So yeah; M19 is on quickdraft rn, and with me starting to play Arena this Sunday I've gotten a few drafts in.

Draft 1: Went G/U. Wanted to go Ramp, but didn't get enough ramp cards (1 Druid, saw 0 Rejuvenators/Manaliths/Gifts), so the deck didn't really come together. Had a Patient Rebuilding, but opponents had faster clocks than me twice. Note to self: Totally Lost sucks balls even with Rebuilding and three Essence Scatter in the deck. Deck went 2-3

Draft 3: Calling it "Splashyfacts". Base blue with two Skilled Animator, three Scholar of Stars, and enough artifacts to turn them on - including a Manalith which helps splash three off-colour bombs (basically made the colour of the cheapest one my secondary colour). Currently 2-0.

Went 3-3, only saw him twice and never until I was half through my deck. That's the breaks I guess.

Yeah, same with the Banefire in my Splashyfacts. To be fair though, it won me one game (probably the difference between your 3-3 and my 4-3)

UB is a pretty strong archetype, though; went 7-2 with an "all bombs, no removal" version (Bone Drake+Windreader Sphinx, but no Caress/Spores); my current more "standard" UB has had a strong start (3-0 or 4-0)

EDIT: Yup, that deck did it and got me my first 7-0 draft. Doesn't say too much (since I'm still Silver 1 or something on Limited), but the deck felt very solid. Unfortunately I didn't save a screenshot of the deck, so the list comes from memory and thus may contain a mistake or two:

Honestly, something similar to this could be the model U/B list for M19 draft. Have an Omenspeaker instead of one of the Corpses, maybe a second Essence Scatter or a Bone to Ash instead of the Cancel, optionally throw in a Macabre Waltz and you're basically there.

The format is strange... very basic but hard to figure out... I´m still off the 7 wins territory but have gone consistently 4-3 and 5-3, I´m currently 1-2 with one life gain deck... but I got one loss for one unexpected match end... which I find total BS!I send one report but I doubt they refund me or even delete the lost.

Ps: Modulo I have had very decent results with UB, divination, mind rot, macabre waltz work very fine to get card advantage and essence scatter is one of the MVP, never the less I most times need at least one bomb to dive into those colors, Dijin, Tezzeret or that gold creature that discards and draws you a card, or in the best case scenario patience rebuilding.

One card that has completely blown my mind is vampire neonate... that silly 0/3 really shines in this format, put one epicure of blood into the miz and you got one 2 cards common combo

@Cucho: I don't feel like UB needs that many bombs and wins games by grinding the opponent out. Plus, you cann pick up win cons fairly easily: Vampire Neonate and Frilled Sea Serpent give you inevitability at common, Vampire Sovereign and Horizon Scholar are huge fliers at Uncommon (and not much worse than Psychic Symbiont), and if you want to go mill there's also Millstone and Psychic Corrosion at uncommon. All of these cards are legit wincons, and especially the common ones can be found very late in the pack.

And yeah, Neonate is good; blocks most 2-drops and gains value over time. Same reason why cards like Dryad Greenseeker are amazing in the format.

The format overall is fairly removal-light, and the white and red removal in particular is very splashable. As a result, people prioritize it very highly, and that's what I think you should do as well (only pick real bombs over it). I'd say that you cannot expect to see Electrify, Luminous Bonds and Lich's Caress past pick 3; and Shock, Strangling Spores, Take Vengeance, Essence Scatter, Dwindle and Rabid Bite will be gone around pick 5. The only removal spells you can consistently pick up later are Plummet (which I believe can be maindecked as a 1-of in some green decks) and Naturalize/Invoke the Divine (same here, though I'd be unhappy to start Naturalize).

The same is true for bots (maybe even moreso than humans); they'll pick based on a tier list and on that tier list basically any removal scores quite highly. They'll still choose colours, but they probably don't differentiate whether they just picked their third Lich's Caress when they'd instead need that Salvager of Secrets much more (for instance).

This might actually explain a big deal as to why green and blue seem underdrafted on a fairly regular basis, though.

@Cucho: I don't feel like UB needs that many bombs and wins games by grinding the opponent out. Plus, you cann pick up win cons fairly easily: Vampire Neonate and Frilled Sea Serpent give you inevitability at common, Vampire Sovereign and Horizon Scholar are huge fliers at Uncommon (and not much worse than Psychic Symbiont), and if you want to go mill there's also Millstone and Psychic Corrosion at uncommon. All of these cards are legit wincons, and especially the common ones can be found very late in the pack.

And yeah, Neonate is good; blocks most 2-drops and gains value over time. Same reason why cards like Dryad Greenseeker are amazing in the format.

The UB deck usually needs at least 4 drops of a combination of Wall of mist, Neonates or Omen speakers to survive to the first part of the game, then it can stabilize and go for the mill or flyers.. my best UB deck still was very heavy on the cratures, the ones that took the more controling form tend to die consistently to G/x or W/x

Serpent is just bad IMO, Dockhand has been one of the best creatures for the inetability you mention, Epicure of Blood + Fountain or Neonate or any 3 to 5CMC flyers are better in that spot.

I have gone 4-3/ 3-3 with decent decks but I have never been able to build a proper UB...and go 7 wins.

I think that you are right on the Bots drafting style coz its almost impossible to get a P1P2 Murder for instance, I wish we knew a bit more of how the bots draft

The UB deck usually needs at least 4 drops of a combination of Wall of mist, Neonates or Omen speakers to survive to the first part of the game, then it can stabilize and go for the mill or flyers.. my best UB deck still was very heavy on the cratures, the ones that took the more controling form tend to die consistently to G/x or W/x

Serpent is just bad IMO, Dockhand has been one of the best creatures for the inetability you mention, Epicure of Blood + Fountain or Neonate or any 3 to 5CMC flyers are better in that spot.

I have gone 4-3/ 3-3 with decent decks but I have never been able to build a proper UB...and go 7 wins.

I think that you are right on the Bots drafting style coz its almost impossible to get a P1P2 Murder for instance, I wish we knew a bit more of how the bots draft

I found Wall of Mist to be quite mediocre, mostly because it doesn't forward any of your gameplans really and is worse than a 2/2 or 1/3 in go-wide matchups (which I found to be the most consistent aggressive decks). If it really annoys the aggressive player he uses a combat trick on it whenever he feels like it, but he is never forced to do so (different story against 2/2s or 1/3s). It's not unplayable, but I never want more than one and vastly prefer 0 in most decks.

Serpent is absolutely solid IMO. It's big enough to either stall most boards or, if the baord is stalled, break the stalemate and chip in for 4. I guess you'd play 0 in absolutely ideal versions of the decks, but running 1 or 2 of them is nothing to be ashamed of, really.

I'm actually lower on Epicure than I am on Serpent. 4/4 for 5 trades for most 4-drops on its own and the ability is only relevant if you have your repeatable lifegain source ready; and U/B runs maybe 2 repeatable lifegain sources and then maybe 3-4 incidental lifegain cards, Epicure will get a chip in here and there but will not really help you stall out the board. He's great in W/B, acceptable in U/B (though ideal decks run 0, and I'd rather have the first Serpent than the first Epicure in most U/B decks) and fairly bad in G/B and R/B.

Agreed on Serpent, a very solid creature and it usually goes late so it's not hard to pick one up. Can stall a board very well and while the unblockable is expensive it's a handy mana sink. Dodges a lot of removal and tricks too with 6 toughness. Found it real useful in U/G especially.

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